31 October - Bigurda Trail, Kalbarri National Park; Pink Lake; Lynton Station Convict Ruins and Northampton

31 October 2016 – 193 596

Bigurda Trail, Kalbarri National Park; Pink Lake; Lynton Station Convict Ruins and Northampton

After packing down, we walked the Bigurda Trail (18.4km 4.5 hours) along the top of the coastal cliffs in Kalbarri National Park. https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/kalbarri https://trailswa.com.au/trails/bigurda-trail-kalbarri-national-park1 

This commenced at Eagle Gorge and continued south to Natural Bridge, passing Island Rock along the way.

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/eagle-gorge https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/island-rock

I truly enjoyed this walk as I could see the ocean all the time as well as wildflowers and gorgeous rock formations in the cliffs.  Due to the high winds and amazing quantities of flies, we ate our lunch while walking.  

Our next stop was Hutt Lagoon (also known as Pink Lake), which was quite amazing, it truly is bright pink.

https://www.australiascoralcoast.com/destination/pink-lake-port-gregory 

https://www.westernaustralia.com/en/Attraction/Hutt_Lagoon/59cb40e112f8967834c0e22f 

Lynton Station has most of the original convict depot station ruins still present, including some largely intact buildings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynton,_Western_Australia https://sappers-minerswa.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Port-Gregory-Gibbs-No.19.pdf  

In Northampton we looked at Our Lady in Ara Coeli Church, designed by Monsignor Hawes and built in the 1930’s – the stone used in this building is beautiful red stone that glows in the sunlight. https://www.churchesaustralia.org/list-of-churches/denominations/catholic/directory/1545-our-lady-in-ara-coeli-catholic-church

We then drove on to Geraldton, where we are staying at Belair Gardens Caravan Park for the next few nights. https://summerstar.com.au/caravan-parks/belair-gardens-geraldton

30 October - Rainbow Jungle and Coastal Kalbarri National Park

30 October 2016 – 193 576

Rainbow Jungle and Coastal Kalbarri National Park

This morning we had a lie in and relax.  We then went down to watch the daily Pelican Feeding – the pelicans showed up but unfortunately no one showed up to feed them. https://www.kalbarri.org.au/pelican-feeding https://www.kalbarri.org.au/things-to-do/pelican-feeding We then drove to Rainbow Jungle – a huge parrot aviary – they had many small aviaries plus an enormous free flight area with hundreds of birds. https://www.rainbowjunglekalbarri.com/ They had a great variety of different types of parrots from both Australia and overseas.  As well as displaying them, they breed them for sale. Hayden was lucky enough to get to feed several of the macaws, lovebirds, parrots and cockatoos – he even got to go inside the cage with the handler while she was feeding them! 

We visited the Zuytdorp Memorial – where a Dutch ship was shipwrecked – they believe people survived the shipwreck and may have been adopted by the local aboriginals. https://www.monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/disaster/maritime/display/98874-%22zuytdorp%22-memorial- 

After lunch we went to the northern part of Coastal Kalbarri National Park and did several walks. https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/kalbarri  https://www.kalbarri.org.au/national-park2015/17-info/162-coastal-cliffs https://www.australiascoralcoast.com/destination/kalbarri/kalbarri-national-park The lookouts at Red Bluff gave amazing views of the windswept waves crashing on the rocks below – I would not like to be a shipwreck victim here! https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/red-bluff Pot Alley was an example of how a crack forms in the sandstone and then the waves gradually widen it into a gorge and a beach forms – very pretty. https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/pot-alley Last up for today was the Mushroom Rock and Rainbow Valley walk (2.5km 40 minutes) – this gave views of wildflowers as well as amazing layered colours in the rocks. https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/mushroom-rock https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/rainbow-valley Where the water is seeping out of the rock it is forming stalactites that make it look like the colour from one layer has run into the next layer.  Surprisingly, we saw a sheep wandering around on the rocks here.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent allowing Hayden to play in the playground and swim in the pool. 

29 October - Gorge and River Section of Kalbarri National Park

29 October 2016 -  193 487

Gorge and River Section of Kalbarri National Park

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/kalbarri

https://www.australiascoralcoast.com/destination/kalbarri/kalbarri-national-park

Today we began with “The Loop” walk in Kalbarri National Park (11.2km 3 hours 20 minutes) which walked along the cliff faces of the Murchison River before descending to walk along the rock walls, then descended again to the riverbed, before climbing back up and passing Nature’s Window on the way back.  The gorge is a beautiful layered sedimentary rock, predominantly red, but also with patches of cream mixed through. We saw at least thirty black swans, congregating in a shallow section of the river.  We then went to a lookout at the top of the gorge.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/loop-natures-window

https://trailswa.com.au/trails/loop-walk

https://www.australiascoralcoast.com/destination/kalbarri/kalbarri-national-park/the-loop

We then drove to the Z-Bend section of the park. 

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/z-bend

https://trailswa.com.au/trails/z-bend-river-trail/print

https://www.australiascoralcoast.com/destination/kalbarri/kalbarri-national-park/z-bend 

Our first walk here was called the “Four Ways Trail” (6.3km 2 hours).  The beginning of this walk had beautiful wildflowers – some of the wildflowers are subtle and delicate, some are very flamboyant!  This then travelled for some distance down a gully before coming out where a gully joined the Murchison River from each side of the banks.  Our last walk for the day was the Z-Bend Lookout and River Trail (3.2km 1 hour).  The walk to the lookout was easy going and gave one of the best views of the day, down into the gorge.  From here we climbed down to the river level, via ladders and chimneys – a cool walk – with a great view at the bottom and of the underneath of the overhangs.  We headed home for well deserved showers and dinner.